Magazine

Toddler looking at a baby ostrich through a car window at a drive-through safari

Surviving a Baby Ostrich Encounter With Your Sanity Intact

Before we packed up the minivan to visit the drive-through wildlife ranch out by the highway last weekend, I managed to get three entirely contradictory pieces of advice about the ostriches. My mom, bless her heart, told me on the...

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A cardboard box on a kitchen counter prepared with a warm towel for a rescued backyard bird.

Finding A Baby Pigeon In Your Backyard (And What To Do Next)

"I need you to put the coffee down," my husband Dave said at exactly 7:14 AM on a Tuesday, wearing only one sock and looking like he'd seen an actual ghost in our hydrangeas. He was holding our seven-year-old, Leo,...

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A tiny infant bird sitting in the damp garden grass next to a toddler's shoe

Dear past Tom: So your toddler found a bird in the garden

Dear Tom from last May. You're currently standing on the patio in your dressing gown, holding a lukewarm mug of instant coffee while watching Maya and Lily enthusiastically poke at a pulsating lump of grey fluff on the lawn, so...

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A toddler pointing at a patch of grass in a backyard

The Truth About Baby Bunnies and Toddlers (A Survival Story)

I was knee-deep in packing tape, desperately trying to get three Etsy orders boxed up before the mail carrier arrived, while balancing my sweaty four-month-old on my hip. That's exactly when my oldest, Jackson, came sprinting through the back screen...

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A heavily loaded pram looking like a pack mule on a typical London pavement.

Surviving the Absolute Chaos of Your First Real Baby's Out Day

I'm currently standing in the hallway holding a solitary, incredibly tiny sock. I've been standing here staring at the wallpaper for what feels like twelve minutes, entirely paralysed by indecision. I can hear one of my two-year-old twin daughters crying...

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Sarah holding an iced coffee while checking her toddler's arm for a baby wasp sting

Before & After a Baby Wasp Sting: What I Wish I Had Known Earlier

It was 2:14 PM on a Tuesday, and I was wearing those terrible gray biker shorts that ride up too high, holding a lukewarm iced coffee that I hadn’t actually taken a sip of in three hours. Leo was eight...

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Mom doing a thorough tick check on her baby's hairline after playing outdoors in the grass.

How to Handle a Tick Bite on Your Baby Without Losing Your Mind

I was elbows deep in lukewarm bathwater trying to scrub what I thought was a stubborn piece of dried Texas dirt out from behind my four-month-old’s left ear. My oldest was running around the bathroom completely naked, loudly singing a...

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A slightly terrified London dad pushing twin toddlers in a bucket swing over a damp lawn

The terrifying physics of your first garden baby swing setup

I'm standing in our damp, aggressively overgrown London garden, holding twenty feet of braided nylon rope and staring at a branch on our neighbor's encroaching oak tree, while Florence—who's supposed to be sitting quietly on a blanket—attempts to eat a...

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Confused dad sitting on lawn next to an 11-month-old baby, staring into a cardboard box.

What Do Baby Birds Eat? A Dad's Guide to Backyard Rescues

It's 2 PM on a Tuesday, I'm supposed to be pushing code to a staging server, and instead I'm on my knees in the dirt staring at what appears to be a raw chicken tender that has somehow sprouted a...

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